Thread by @BiIndia

As #Flipkart and #Amazon try to quash India's antitrust investigation, trader lobbies accuse them of 'monopolising #ecommerce'

businessinsider.in/business/ecomm…

@Krittiiii

@Krittiiii Walmart-owned homegrown e-commerce giant #Flipkart and rival #Amazon have separately challenged Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) decision to launch an antitrust investigation into their business practices.

#ecommerce

@Krittiiii Notably, the companies have denied any wrong doings in their respective appeals. The antitrust investigation would look into the alleged policy violations and anti-competitive behaviours by both #Amazon and #Flipkart.

#ecommerce

@Krittiiii #Flipkart filed its appeal on June 16 in the Karnataka High Court. Details of #Amazon’s appeal are not out yet. The development was first reported by Reuters citing sources it did not name.

#ecommerce

@Krittiiii "Irreparable injury will be caused to the appellant if the investigation was to continue pending the present appeal," #Flipkart reportedly said in its appeal and urged the court to quash the initial CCI order for the investigation. #Amazon, too, mounted similar challenges.

Several lobby groups like the Confederation of all India Traders (CAIT), All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) have accused these e-commerce giants of eating into their business with predatory policies, deep discounting and business malpractices.

#Flipkart #Amazon

The associations have also called them out for violating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and devoiding the government of taxes.

#Flipkart #Amazon #ecommerce

Another report published in February 2021 had highlighted similar violations on the part of #Amazon. The report noted that two sellers — Cloudtail and Appario — in which Amazon had indirect stakes made up around 35% of the platform’s revenue through sales in 2019.

Overall, just 35 sellers on #Amazon accounted for roughly two-thirds of all sales. This indicated a violation of Press Note 2 of FDI policies that bars e-commerce companies from giving preferential treatments to certain sellers.